PS3 Celebrates its First Birthday, 5.6 Million Sold

288w ago - Sony's little baby turns one. The PS3 has been crawling along, but can it walk or maybe even run? Sony is still aiming for 11 million units sold this fiscal year with 160 new games.

Sony today is celebrating the PlayStation 3s' first anniversary. The console has certainly had its fair share of difficulties thanks to high price points and a lack of "killer apps." Following the launch of the $399 model, business is already on the up and up, according to Sony Chairman Howard Stringer.

According to Sony, the PS3 has now sold 5.6 million units worldwide, 2 million of which have been purchased in North America. The company's worldwide sales goal for next March remains 11 million units. Sony also noted that year to date sales of PS3 in Japan and EMEA outsold Xbox 360 by three-to-one.

In terms of software, 28 million PS3 software units have been sold across the globe, seven million of which were sold in North America. A total of 160 new PS3 titles are expected to be released this fiscal year, including 19 exclusives from first and third party. A total of 23 third parties are creating content for the PS3.

Although the trend for the last year has been for publisher to create Xbox 360 SKUs and then port to PS3, Sony claims this is now starting to reverse: "Developers are now creating games on PS3 and then porting them to other platforms. This shows the strides developers are making in creating content for PS3 and also provides developers with an advantage as it's harder to port from Xbox 360 to PS3. Ubisoft's Haze is the first title to be created on PS3 and ported to Xbox."

"When we designed PS3 our goal was to introduce a system so technically advanced that it could stand the test of time and could take the industry in a whole new direction, which for PS3 was high-definition entertainment," said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA. "While we're excited by the progress we've made this first year, we know that like our other platforms, the best is still yet to come, especially given our new hardware and software line-up, and that PS3 will continue to take the industry to new heights for years to come."

Regarding the PS3's PlayStation Network, Sony said there are three million members currently and over 60 million pieces of content have been downloaded. The "average" PS Network user has downloaded 12.3 pieces of content.

Finally, with respect to Blu-ray, Sony made the following points:

PS3 Blu-ray currently outsells Xbox 360 HD-DVD 9 to 1.

A recent Blu-ray Disc adoption survey shows that 87% of PS3 users watch Blu-ray movies, 80% of PS3 users have purchased Blu-ray movies and 82% intend to purchase or rent Blu-ray movies.

Blu-ray titles continue to outsell HD DVD titles by nearly 2 to1 (Home Media Research, a division of Home Media Magazine).

There will be more than 450 Blu-ray movies available to PS3 owners this holiday season.

"The inclusion of the Blu-ray drive in PS3 reflects Sony's absolute commitment to the format," said Stringer. "We firmly believe that Blu-ray is the best high definition format for consumers, providing superior capacity, next-generation games, more hit movie titles, and the best possible picture and sound quality. With PS3, you get an amazing game machine and a state-of-the-art high definition movie player, and it is clear from recent sales numbers that this combination is resonating with millions of PS3 customers."

Going forward, with games like Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Warhawk, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Unreal Tournament 3, and Haze, a huge marketing campaign, and the launch of Home next spring, Sony is very confident in the PS3's future.